HAPPY NEW YEAR! First and foremost, we want to big a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who donated in our December campaign. We raised $10,000 to help us achieve our big goals in 2013, including:

Guide and Training for Organizations and Schools to address street harassment. Information on how to address street harassment for students, clients, and employees, including curriculum, referrals, and a “know-your-rights” section will be published in two first-of-its-kind guides this year. Training webinars will be held following the release of the guide for organizations (June 2013) and the guide for schools (October 2013).

First-ever site leader retreat and public event. Our sites will met for the first time in New York in Summer 2013 – where they will give short, taped, TED-inspired speeches at a public event, and then head upstate for a 3 day retreat.

Launch and Train 75 new leaders from 25 new sites. To keep this movement growing, we are committed to meeting the demand for our services internationally. Each site we launch costs the organization $2,500 and including a comprehensive 3-month on-line training, technical assistance, and resources.

On-line platform for site leaders. Materials, resources, and communication is currently taking place across google drive, google groups, and facebook. This new-online platform would streamline these networks into a one-stop shop for site leaders – fostering better communication and collaboration.

Bystander trainings and petition signed by 10,000 people. People who publicly say that they will do something are more likely to actually do it. Working with Green Dot, we will develop a curriculum to be scaled across all our sites which will encourage people to pledge to be better bystanders when they witness harassment happening. Their stories of intervention will be mapped on our site.

Improve our data collection system. With over 4,000 stories told, we have an incredibly robust set of research. In 2013, we want to expand the type of data we collect to include demographics, prevalence, and impact so that we can increase awareness of street harassment and better target the problem – and the solutions.

We’re still looking for additional funding for these projects, so if you know of anyone who would be interested in supporting us, please let us know! Otherwise, without further ado, here are our site updates:

Hollaback Jacksonville was featured in the JD news! “Street harassment happens everywhere,” Kari Raack, founder of Hollaback! Jacksonville said. “Hollaback! is a platform for men and women to have a way to ‘hollaback’ at the people who have committed street harassment against them.”

Hollaback Pathenkot published a letter to the editor in response to the recent rang rape and murder in India that has result in widespread protest. Site leader PAAYAS PANDIT writes, “The Delhi incident just goes to highlight the barbarism that prevails in our society. It would not be wrong to say that India has become a thoroughly uncivilised, patriarchal society.”

Hollaback Chandigarh launched the Pledge Project in response to the gang rape in Delhi. “It’s the pledge to speak up when we see a woman being harassed on the streets. We pledge to intervene when a woman is being raped/assaulted, pledge to simply dial 100 or 1091 to save a woman’s life and dignity,” says Rubina Singh. The project has already received over 500 pledges and was covered in the Indian Express, the Hindustan Times, and the Daily Post India. Hollaback was also cited in the Times of India article, “‘Men’s psychological troubles spur harassment of women on streets.”

Last but not least, something fun for the new year from our site leader Julie Lalonde in Ottawa: the intro to this super-fun Scissor Sisters song starts off talking about harassment on public transportation.